Aperture 3 with Library on a network Disk

Sorry William, but I don't think that anyone here expects Aperture to be a multi-user asset management system.

The point here is, that people like to access their library's from difrent computers and may also want to see their library's in a save harbor like on a well maintained and backuped Server, NAS or RAID.

What about a work environment in witch the users home directories live an a Mac OS X Server, in order to let the user work from different workplaces?

If you have a look at Apples OS X Server documentation and marketing materials you will find that this is the way Apple like to see a professional Mac OS Installation.

All this has nothing to do with any multi-user abilities. It is just a matter of where the (single-user) library is located.

Due to the fact, Aperture 3 didn't introduces a considerable change in it's library concept, and Aperture 2 worked well in networked environments, I still see the current Aperture 3 behavior as a bug.

Why is everyone telling us that this is not a good idea because its slow. Obviously the people that are complaining about it have this setup working with version 2. Yes, its slow. I understand this and have never complained about it. I have to sacrifice speed for connectivity and I'm okay with it. I require to access "the library file" with all the versions and changes from multiple computers (not at the same time). Placing the masters on the network does absolutely nothing for me because if I make changes on one computer, I can't see it on the other. This is a 100% deal breaker for me. I must stick with version 2 until this gets fixed or re-implemented.

According to [this Apple kbase article|http://support.apple.com/kb/TA23750] network volumes are "not recommended or supported for Aperture."

Best of luck.

That article is from 2005. Latest Aperture patch apparently adds Network Volume capability.

Apple finally fixed it.

Aperture 3.0.1 now supports Aperture libraries on a network volume (again).

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/application_updates/aperture301.html

No, doesn't appear to be fixed. @ 3.0.2 Network volume is showing unsupported, although it is a CIFS mount. Creating a sparse volume on the CIFS share seems to work, though. I have a 10tb Solaris ZFS zraid which i've never had a performance issue over 1g ethernet vs. a 3 disk stripe inside the MP... All of the work seems to be Random I/O.

All I can confirm is, that I am able to access my Aperture library on a network volume with Ver. 3.0.1. And it is still working with 3.0.2.

The Volume is on a Mac OS X 10.6 Server and is mounted via afp.

Aperture 3.0.1 Release Notes reads: "Accessing Aperture libraries on a network volume" with no restriction to a specific type of network volume.

As a professional photographer working in a studio with 2 photographers and 2 assistants, the need to work across a network and share libraries is critical to an effciant workflow. A non-network version of software is for seious amateurs at best and not professional grade.

There are lots of server grade databases out there and Apple (and adobe for that matter) should step up to the plate and create levels of their "professional" tools that cater to not just stand alone workstations but larger operations that require networked solutions.

I've been watching this debate for sometime - since the first release of Lightroom. Apple had an opportunity to scoop a whole level of photographers with Aperture 3 - all they had to do was add a server app or something to create stability to the multiple users accessing the data.

I think users using the software at this level are willing to pay extra for this functionality. Why is nobody offering it?

Hi mark_orenstein;

Why are you not talking to Apple about this?

Here on a user to user forum there is nothing we can do about this problem. It is something that those users that are experiencing it must take up with Apple.

Allan